Tax cut figures into Gov. race

Wednesday

Jul 5, 2006 at 1:00 AM

Wire

COLUMBUS Ohioans will be talking about a capital gains tax cut right around the time they elect their next governor.State lawmakers made sure of that last week in an unusually timed meeting in which the House Rules Committee moved on a proposal that would reduce top income tax rates on capital gains from 7 percent to 3 percent over a three-year period. It scheduled the bill for hearings in late July.Democrats immediately denounced the sudden action, late on a lazy summer Thursday, as a poorly disguised effort by majority Republicans to draw attention to their candidate for governor, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, who faces Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland in November. Though a capital gains tax cut isnt officially part of Blackwells three-pronged tax plan, the concept has been a mainstay of the Republican Party for years.House Speaker Jon Husted, a Kettering Republican, said there is nothing political about the decision to move on the bill now.As we looked to our next step in tax reform, this was the issue we heard most of the cries about, he said.Husted said he didnt speak to Blackwell or Strickland before referring the bill to the committee, though the Blackwell campaign was aware the move was coming. In fact, Husted said he specifically tried to ensure the process wouldnt be politicized, selecting term-limited Rep. Chuck Calvert to sponsor the bill and term-limited Rep. Sally Conway Kilbane, a respected economist, to run the hearings.Those folks arent running for re-election, Husted said. They wont be campaigning for anything.Unlike in recent elections, both candidates have a serious chance of winning the governors office. Democrats who have no power of incumbency to exploit during an election year they view as crucial are worried rightly that moves such as the one the House is making on the capital gains tax will draw needed media attention away from their front-running candidate.State Rep. Chris Redfern, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, dubbed Husteds decision to move the tax bill during the summer and perhaps vote on it just before the fall election another election-year gimmick.Tax cuts without an Ohio jobs plan just means that the GOP will simply allow tax cuts for the rich, and no corresponding protection from massive job losses for the rest of Ohioans, Redfern said in a news release.Husted said he scheduled hearings on the tax cut this summer because the current legislative session will end Dec. 31, and majority Republicans want to finish the tax reform they started. He accused Democrats of doing little but naysaying.We offered tax reform, they said no. We offered government reform and even redistricting reform, and they said no to that, too, he said. You cant just stand on the sidelines and throw jabs, and bring nothing to the table.